Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2020

Notes:
Veteran Indian journalist Yusuf Jameel, was chosen for and awarded the ‘2019-2020 PEN-Gauri Lankesh Award for Democratic Idealism’. The award was presented to him, for his revolutionary journalism in Jammu and Kashmir, during the insurgency period.
PEN International is a global association of writers, which was founded in 1921. PEN South India and PEN Delhi have instituted the annual award to cherish and honour the assassinated journalist and activist Gauri Lankesh. The award is offered to an individual or organisation, whose work demonstrates courageous and democratic journalism, on birth anniversary of Gauri Lankesh.

Notes:
Ajmal Sultanpuri was a 97-year-old renowned Urdu poet, who passed away recently in his native place Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh.
The poet was a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award by Uttar Pradesh Urdu Academy in March 2016 for his significant contribution to Urdu poetry. He has written several Urdu poems and some of his noted poems include “Kahan Hai Mera Hindustan” and “Agar Main Tera Shahjahan”. He protested against social discrimination in his early age and his poems are based on communal harmony and multiculturalism of India.

Notes:
After nearly four years of the referendum voted by the British people for Brexit, the United Kingdom officially left the European Union, at 11.00 p.m on January 31, 2020.
After Britain left the bloc, the European Union has 27 more countries. The process by which the member state leaves the Union has expired and UK has entered the transition period, which will remain till December 31, 2020. The UK will continue to obey the EU laws and courts during the transition period. A new 50-pence coin was launched recently to mark the occasion.

Notes:
The Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy had proposed the door-delivery of pension in the state under YSR Pension Kanuka scheme. The process was recently commenced in the state.
The pension has also been increased to ₹2,250 from the earlier ₹1,000 and the eligibility criteria has been revised to provide pension benefit to all the deserved people. The volunteers, with the smartphones containing biometric information of the pensioners will visit the beneficiaries and process the pension payment.

Notes:
World Cancer Day is organized by the Union for International Cancer Control and celebrated every year on February 4, from 2000. This year the theme of the campaign is ‘I am and I will’.
The World Cancer Day campaign was first created in the year 2000, and this year’s is the 20th edition of the day. It is observed to create awareness about the disease across the world and to improve individual and government action. The campaign aims at reducing the number of premature deaths from cancer and noncommunicable diseases by one third by 2030.

Notes:
Indian Maharatna Public sector enterprise NTPC Ltd has recently raised $750 million syndicated Japanese yen loan, which will help to reduce air pollution from its power projects across India.
This is the highest single-foreign currency loan raised by the enterprise and also the largest syndicated Japanese yen loan raised by an Asian firm. The yen-denominated bond issued in the Japanese capital by non-Japanese companies is called Samurai bond. The loan will fund the installation of Flue Gas Desulphurization (FGD) system, which will help reduce SOx emissions. New hydro projects and projects using advanced technologies are also set to be established with the fund.

Notes:
Indian Cricket star Virat Kohli retains his top rank in the latest brand valuation study by Duff & Phelps. He is placed at the first spot third year in a row.
The report revealed that Virat Kohli has increased his brand value by 40 per cent to $237.5 million in 2019. The second place was bagged by Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar, who pushed the last year’s second rank holder Deepika Padukone to third. The third spot is shared by actor Ranveer Singh. Former Indian captain M.S.Dhoni is placed at 9th place in the list.

Notes:
India’s leading defence PSU Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with RailTel Corporation of India for mutual co-operation in the fields of Cloud Services, IoT, e-Governance and Networks for Defence projects.
BEL also signed an agreement with a Bengaluru-based start-up, Newspace & Research Technologies Limited (NRT), for co-operation in design, testing and supply of Unmanned Systems. The PSU also partnered with Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) to develop and market products for defence and non-defence applications. All the agreements were inked during the ongoing defence exhibition-DefExpo 2020, at Lucknow.

Notes:
Digital Fortress (Dejfa in Persian) is the name of a cybersecurity project of Iran. This has been frequently in news in recent times as Iran faces frequent DDoS attacks and cyber attacks. On 8th February also, the agency was able to avert a massive DDoS attack.

Notes:
Baltic Dry index tracking freight rates for world’s largest cargo ships recently plunged into negative territory due to coronovirus.